24.04.2013 Views

Coptic Church & Ecumenical Movement - Saint Mina Coptic ...

Coptic Church & Ecumenical Movement - Saint Mina Coptic ...

Coptic Church & Ecumenical Movement - Saint Mina Coptic ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

“We all believe that Our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Incarnate Word,<br />

the Incarnate God. We believe that He was perfect in His divinity and perfect in His<br />

humanity and that His divinity never departed His humanity not even a single instant<br />

nor a twinkle of an eye.”<br />

I asked them in the Pro Oriente Conference to leave aside all the ancient Greek<br />

phrases that had caused divisions and disagreements, to choose simple expressions,<br />

easy to comprehend, to leave the difficult philosophical matters to the theologians.<br />

Christianity is not only for Philosophers! Our Lord spoke simple, easy words. The<br />

children, the illiterate, the uneducated and all the masses understood Him clearly. He<br />

never used difficult expressions, He explained even the Parables to His disciples.<br />

In Vienna, we discussed “The One Nature”. We Copts and the Roman Catholics<br />

believe in what St. Cyril expressed as “The One Nature of the Incarnated Word” but<br />

they thought (wrongly) that we believe in one nature and deny the other. This is not<br />

the case. We believe that the two natures, His divinity and His humanity, are in<br />

perfect and complete unity. We called this perfect unity “The One Nature”. It is<br />

neither divinity nor humanity; it is the unique nature of the God Incarnate.<br />

In our <strong>Ecumenical</strong> meetings, we should talk about actual beliefs regardless of what<br />

happened in the past. We must avoid complex and vague expressions. In spite of all<br />

the problems that might arise about History, Rites, <strong>Ecumenical</strong> Councils and so on we<br />

shall achieve good results with love, good spirit and determination. We shall achieve<br />

this together. It is God’s will.<br />

The whole Christian world is anxious to see the <strong>Church</strong> unite. Christian people, being<br />

fed up with divisions and dispersion, are pushing their <strong>Church</strong> leaders to do<br />

something about <strong>Church</strong> unity and I am sure that the Holy Spirit is inspiring us.<br />

Christian unity will be a magnificent universal achievement for generations to come.<br />

Let us pray that we unite in the faith delivered to us by our great Fathers, who kept it,<br />

defended it and sacrificed their lives for it.<br />

Let us pray that God works in our hearts and thoughts so that we fulfil His will.<br />

Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit now and forever more. AMEN.<br />

238

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!